


from an unlikely source

by wafflelate



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gardens, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 14:31:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18875119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate
Summary: Shikako has a run in with Tenzō, who’s having a very bad day.





	from an unlikely source

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DawningStar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawningStar/gifts).



Shikako doesn’t sense them, and she isn’t yet using the Seal That Goes Ding When There’s Stuff, so she’s just as surprised as Tenzō is when he comes bursting into the clearing where she’s thinking of making camp. He has a sword drawn in one hand. He has a teammate slung over the other shoulder, his arm a bar over their knees to keep them in place even as he moves straight into attacking her without pause. 

His form is good. Practiced. He must attack people while carrying someone slung over his shoulder a _lot_ , because even as Shikako dodges his first strike, he twists perfectly to keep his blade and his body between her and the injured teammate he’s got slung over his shoulder. 

It’s a perfect defensive maneuver, but it doesn’t keep her from catching a glimpse of his teammate and realizing that it’s Kakashi he’s got over his shoulder. It also won’t help him against the three enemy ninja who arrive in the clearing from the same direction as Tenzō. 

These enemies are also carefully dressed to match no particular village, dressed in dark, anonymous, serviceable clothing nearly indistinguishable from what Shikako herself is wearing. 

No wonder Tenzō has assumed she’s with them. 

Kakashi’s unconscious body hits the ground as two of the three enemy ninja — probably Cloud ninja — attack Tenzō in tandem. The third hangs back eyeing Shikako. 

It’s cute that he thinks she’ll stay out of it if he watches her. Shikako’s shadow snakes out through the grass, around Kakashi, and stops both of Tenzō’s opponents in their tracks. 

Tenzō freezes when they freeze, wary of a trap. 

One of the ninja Shikako’s caught is left handed. The other is right handed. Shikako raises her empty hands and mimes stabbing herself. The enemy ninja do the same, only both of them are holding swords, so they die. Their friend tries to beat a quick retreat, obviously knowing he’s outnumbered, but Tenzō and Kakashi are in full ANBU gear, masks-on. They probably weren’t supposed to reveal themselves to anyone, much less enter combat, but having done so they certainly aren’t supposed to let anyone who’s seen them live. 

Shikako goes after the last enemy so that Tenzō doesn’t have to even think about leaving Kakashi to do it himself. By the time she gets back, Tenzō is on the move again, headed for the Land of Fire border. She should just let him go, but — 

He should have more teammates with him. If he runs into more trouble, he and Kakashi will both be in trouble. She follows them until Tenzō finally stops miles past the Land of Fire border, at which point Shikako catches up to him, full stealth, and finds him with a first aid kit sprawled open, trying to clean a terrible-looking wound on Kakashi’s leg. He has his mask off, probably because he’s losing light fast and the eye holes don’t actually make it _easier_ to see detailed work in the dark. 

He looks panicked. And young, younger than her. Younger than she’s ever seen him. 

Shikako can tell from a distance that Kakashi isn’t doing well, that he needs real medical attention. Besides his leg, he’s missing the chestplate and backplate for his armor and he’s not breathing right. His armor must have been damaged too much to be useful, which means there are a lot of possible reasons for his shallow, slightly irregular breathing and none of them are good. 

She’s no one to this version of Kakashi, and never will be. She should be headed west now, towards Land of Wind, without stopping to involve herself. This shouldn’t be her problem, and she probably shouldn’t have even followed Tenzō, because it’s not like he’ll thank her for it. But just like all the other universes where she’s let herself be delayed by other people’s problems... she can’t walk away from this. 

So she backs up a quarter of a mile and makes a much more polite, obvious approach. When she arrives Tenzō has his sword in hand and his mask still off. Kakashi is left laying behind Tenzō, his wounds half-tended and clumsily at that. Tenzō has obviously never had even the smallest amount of actual instruction in caring for an injured comrade. 

Shikako holds her hands up to show how very non-threatening she actually is even though he saw her kill three people earlier. She didn’t kill _him_ , so that should count for _something_. 

“The Nara,” he says. “You followed me.” 

And, yeah, there was really no way of getting around that. Maybe it will work in her favor. 

“Yep, hi,” she says, and waves. “Nara Amago.” Nice and friendly. Very non-threatening. Hopefully. 

Tenzō’s grip on his sword shifts a little. A nervous tell that should probably have been trained out of him at this point in his career, but Shikako doesn’t think he’s had the kind of teachers who’d focus on that, and Kakashi probably hasn’t seen him anxious enough to do it yet. 

“What do you want?” Tenzō asks. His eyes flick over her and around the clearing, probably expecting that he won’t be alone. And looking to bargain and stall — Tenzō might be relatively uninjured, compared to Kakashi, but he’s barely in any shape to continue on to Konoha, let alone fight. 

Shikako lips twist. Approaching people as a stranger is always hard, doubly so when they’re ANBU, and doubled again if she wants to offer medical assistance, but she’s really not sure Tenzō and Kakashi will both make it back to Konoha without help. 

If she has to fight Tenzō to gain access to Kakashi... she will. She doesn’t need Tenzō to be her friend, she just needs him and Kakashi to not die when she could prevent it. But maybe she can convince him, just for a little while. 

“Heart of the south, eye of the north, fingertip of the west, heel of the east,” she says. A general challenge, one of the first that active ninja learn, and a wild gambit — she has no idea if it’s even used here, she has no idea how close this world is to her own. 

But Tenzō gives the correct reply, so apparently pretty close. “Carry the wind and gather; banish the rain and disband,” he says, hesitantly, like he’s never performed an identity challenge before. Maybe he hasn’t, since there’s probably not much of a call for them in ANBU. 

“He’ll die if he doesn’t get medical attention,” Shikako says, bluntly. “You won’t make it very far carrying him.” 

Tenzō doesn’t look away from her to glance at Kakashi, but his shoulders slump. “I know the regulations,” Tenzō mumbles, “but I don’t think he’d leave _me_ behind.” 

“I wasn’t trying to scold you for... not leaving him behind,” Shikako says, slowly. “I was working up to offering medical attention.” 

“Oh,” Tenzō says quietly. “Really? I don’t have much to trade.” He reaches for his pack — which he’d presumably been carrying in a storage scroll before — and rummages through it for a few battered ration bars, which he holds out to Shikako. “Here. This is all I have. Is it enough? For something?” 

Shikako stares down at the ration bars. “This is all you have?” 

Tenzō’s head bobs in a nervous nod. “The mission is almost over. Senpai has more, but I can’t just... take it. Please, if you could — if you could at least tell me what’s wrong with him?” 

The worst part is that this world and her own are close enough to have the same security phrase. Surely it can’t be village policy for everyone in this world to have to barter for medical attention, no matter who’s Hokage. Konoha simply couldn’t function like that. And maybe just in ANBU, but that seems just as unlikely; it would be unsustainable. And that means that it’s a ROOT thing. That means that the same might have been true for the version of Tenzō at home. The same might still be true for the version of _Sai_ at home. 

“I’ll fix him,” Shikako promises. She takes the ration bars because she doesn’t think Tenzō will believe her if she doesn’t, and then she gets to work — confirms that Kakashi is chakra exhausted, straightens out and mends a broken rib, cleans and heals the abrasion on his leg. None of it is perfect, but no matter how self-destructive Kakashi is, he’s not stupid or careless. When Tenzō tells him some strange Nara healed him in the middle of the woods, he’ll seek out additional medical attention that will catch whatever Shikako’s missed. 

“He won’t wake up for a day or two,” she has to tell Tenzō apologetically. A chakra transfer would be a very terrible idea. 

“He overdid it again,” Tenzō mutters to himself. He’s younger than her, maybe twelve years old, and he’s exhausted. He’s prepared for a fight he knows he can’t win, loyal to a village that probably, at this point in Tenzō’s life, doesn’t deserve it. 

And Shikako... can’t help him. Not directly. 

Shikako stands up from where she’s been crouched over Kakashi. “He did,” she agrees, “but he’ll be okay.” 

Tenzō relaxes, just a little, and reseals everything he’d taken out to try and take care of Kakashi. When he has Kakashi folded over his shoulder again, Shikako makes her excuses — clan business, she says, fairly sure that Tenzō doesn’t know nearly enough about clans to catch on that it’s kind of a crap justification for her to be running around out here alone — and leaves, heading southwest. 

Wasabi Jirōchō is probably already friends with Tsunade, and there are more than a few infamous gambling dens between here and Land of Tea where she might get lucky. 


End file.
